


How to win someone's heart

by Rogercat



Series: Acacia and Thorin's modern life [1]
Category: TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works & Related Fandoms, The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types, The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Age Difference, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Cooking, Courtship, Cultural Differences, F/M, Family Drama, Female Bilbo Baggins, Female Bilbo Baggins/Thorin Oakenshield, Food as a Metaphor for Love, Gardens & Gardening, Law Enforcement, Modern Era, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Romantic Friendship, Siblings, Slow Romance, Some Humor, judge - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-17
Updated: 2020-08-04
Packaged: 2020-09-05 21:27:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 5,977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20280079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rogercat/pseuds/Rogercat
Summary: Acacia, a daughter of the Baggins family, and her road towards becoming the wife of the Judge Thorin "Oakenshield" Durinsson





	1. The first meeting

**Author's Note:**

> this is a side story to my Modern Au called Himring National Park, set about ten years earlier

The old fashioned farming community known as the Shire, the large village known as Hobbiton: 

“For the last time, Lobelia! There is nothing shameful of moving away from the Shire for my work! I am hardly the first to do so!”

Acacia Baggins, an recently qualified gardener after finishing the education on Formenos collage, was currently having a loud argument with her distant relative Lobelia.

At the moment, they were at the train station where a train to the large town of Nargothrond would soon arrive, and all the packed bags around Acacia revealed that she truly intended to move away from her home community. 

“Cities are places of  ** _sin, _ ** Acacia! You should stay here, with gardening as a hobby, and be a housewife like everyone else!” 

Acacia knew that the Shire could come off as a bit old-fashioned in their values, especially now in modern times, but she was getting very annoyed right now. She would like to marry one day and have children, yes, but she wanted to have tasted how it was to live in a different place first. And a proper job, with some form of connection to the modern world. 

“My parents allowed me to move to Nargothrond for my new job, as long as I am using contraception to prevent getting pregnant as a unmarried woman from a respectable family here and does not end up on the wrong side of the law!”

Lobelia actually paled in horror, though Acacia guessed that it was a act to try and make her seem bad. 

“How can you act like this against your parents, as their only child!” 

Thankfully the train had now arrived, and Acacia hurried to move her bags unto the train so she could travel along, all while Lobelia kept ranting. 

“This is my choice and you have nothing to do with it!” 

The doors to the train closed off whatever Lobelia tried to say next, and Acacia was very grateful as the train left the station. Now her life outside the Shire was about to begin. She had already found a small flat that would be enough for a single woman, and her offered payment was not so bad that she would have nothing left after paying her bills. 

~X~X~X~X~X~X

Her fellow gardeners in Nargothrond only found it nice that Acacia was from the further north, and could tell more of the culture in the Shire as they worked in the city gardens. 

“I may be a country girl, born and raised there, yes, but that does not mean that I intend to live my whole life here in the city.”

The Shire was a nice place for those with a love for old farming traditions, but Acacia had not wanted to merely be a housewife. Besides, it would not harm if she could find a husband that could bring in some new blood into her own family, the respectable Baggins family.

“Maybe I should travel to Erebor and take a look there?” 

If she did so, it would hardly be the first time a daughter of her farming community married a husband from the old mining community. If history told things right, it had been daughters from the Shire who had helped founding Erebor as the first mine workers had looked for wives. 

“Acacia? You are to go to the courthouse and check over the flowerbeds there today.” 

The old courthouse served its original use still, and Acacia was always impressed of how stunning the marble building was, when she used her bicycle to travel around the city. 

“They should have called us a week ago! The flowers will have to be replaced, all of them!” 

She was dismayed by the state of the flowerbeds. When was last time they had been cared for?! Surely the staff of the courthouse realized that this ruined the overall impression of the place.

Anyway, it meant that she would be kept busy for the whole day. 

~X~X~X~X~X~X

The sun was setting when Thorin finally was done with his work.

“No, I am not in the mood for some fancy restaurant at eat dinner at today.”

His co-workers meant well, but his own flat was in serious need of being cleaned up and he needed to eat up some food in the freezer before its expiration date. 

“Some laundry has to be done too. It is a great thing that I have a washing machine of my own and does not need to share it with others….” 

When he opened the front door to leave the courthouse, he was meet by a stunning sight: 

The flowerbeds was transformed from how they had looked this morning. Now new flowers had been planted and their colours shone like jewels in the sunset behind the city. And the female gardener was still working. 

“Phew! I will have to finish the last part at this flowerbed tomorrow, it will not be good if it is not fully finished.”

Her accent revealed a upbringing from the Shire, and that brought up memories of his childhood as his family had visited the farming community during the summer holidays. 

“Well done on the flowers, miss. They look like a fine set of jewelry.” 

Acacia looked up at the deep voice. A Erebor accent? Pushing up her straw hat she could see better, she saw who it was. 

“Oh, Judge Oakenshield!” 

Thorin Durinsson, one of the most famous persons from Erebor, the judge most people referred as Oakenshield because of that he most often worked with cases related to Himring National Park and foolish tourists who did not use their common sense around wild animals or failed to obey the security rules. 

“Your face...do you, by any chance, happen to be a relative of mayor Bilbo Baggins, miss?”

“The uncle of my father Bungo Baggins, sir.” 

And that was how their relationship started, by a long talk of random things about their childhood homes and how it was to live in the big city. 


	2. Meetinsg all over the place

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> a Sunday can be full of surprises

A fine Sunday in early September: 

Acacia was very happy over the bicycle and associated helmet she had brought with money saved from her salary over the past three months. It made transportation from her flat and across Nargothrond easier. That she got exercise at the same time, was just an added bonus. 

“Besides, I save a lot of money during spring, summer and autumn by not needing to take the bus to my work. If I only take the bus in winter when it is cold, snow covering the roads and everything risks becoming slippery, it is perfect!” 

She had now spent her first summer as a gardener in the city, and looked forwards to see how different it would look in a few weeks when the leaves started to change colour. 

~X~X~X~X~X~X

Unknown to Acacia, Thorin also used a bicycle for the same reasons: saving money on daily transport to and from work, as well as for exercise. This Sunday was a free day for him, so he intended to just get over to one of the city parks and enjoy watching the ducks and swans swim around in the little lake. 

“It was actually pleasant to see someone from the Shire here in the city, that the various dialects that characterizes people from rural areas are rare here…”

It was not that Thorin regretted moving to Nargothrond for his work as a judge at the courthouse, since but sometimes he longed to hear people speak in the same manner as home in Erebor. 

Sure, he could have stayed in Erebor and have his home there in a small house of his own, but the idea of traveling 40 minutes by train in the morning and the same amount of time back in the later afternoon, had not exactly been tempting. Especially in winter, when snow and ice could be horrible for the trains far away from the city. 

“That reminds me, I need to call Dís this evening to ask if there can be a family dinner either this weekend or next one…” 

Suddenly a female voice screamed: 

“ ** _WATCH OUT!!_ ** ” 

It took perhaps a moment for Thorin to realize that this was the infamous brow of a hill where cyclists often found out the hard way that the road unexpectedly leaned down a lot, and then that a lady in a noticeable red dress were about to crash right into him. 

“ _ Oh no…! _ ” 

Because of how many bicycle accidents that happened here in the past, the city gardeners had planted a large and stable hedge where the possible crashes could happen, and thus both Thorin and Acacia landed there. 

“Greetings to you again, miss Baggins. You have just found out one of the more infamous places for bicyclists here in Nargothrond,” Thorin commented, trying to get himself loose from the hedge. 

“By the Stars of Varda, I am so sorry, mr Durinsson!” 

Well, neither one was hurt from the crash landing, and it was not like Acacia could have known about this hill before. So instead, Thorin offered to show her some other roads for bicyclists she could use. 


	3. The right taste

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Acacia misses the food from the Shire, and Thorin does things on his own

Acacia had always known that the food in the big, modern cities was going to be a far cry from what she had grown up with in the Shire. 

“No way, it still does not taste right, even after finally finding organic meat and vegetables in the grocery store?!” 

Right now, she was trying to do a autumn stew intended for her dinner tonight and some lunch boxes at work, yet something was still missing. Or perhaps it was her tongue acting up, not being used yet? 

“Alright, I will suffer though this as it would be a waste of food otherwise, but after this I shall make a order in that store which sells goods from the Shire!” 

She had found it last month, a shop that both sold crafts and acted as intermediaries for food orders from the Shire. The food was meant to last for a week, and delivered in large wooden boxes which was returned at the end of one day to be reused when the buyer would take the next order. 

And if the buyer in question did not own a car like Acacia, there was small express wagons that could be borrowed and returned the next day on the way to work. 

“I will make a order tomorrow when I passes by, so I can get home some  ** _real food _ ** on Friday after work, and finally taste real food!” 

If she hurried, she would be able to send a letter to her parents and request her mother Belladonna to leave some recipes too, for although Acacia had grown up with the cooking of her mother, she was not too sure that she remembered all the right ingredients. 

~X~X~X~X~X~X

At the same time in a different part of Nargothrond, Thorin was speaking with his sister on the phone: 

“A pancake that is done inside a pumpkin? Sounds like a fun idea, Dís, though I would let the pumpkin be done in the oven first and then pour the pancake batter inside it during the last few minutes to ensure that it is not too raw.” 

“ _ You know how much focus it is on Halloween those days, right? I was asked by Kíli if I could make some pancake candy or something similar, to update the menu even if it will only be seasonal.... _ ” 

Thorin facepalmed on the side of his face where his cell phone was not held, knowing that his sister would hear the sound no matter what. His youngest nephew had a bad habit of viewing Arkenstone Pancakes as somewhat old-fashioned, in grave need of becoming “modernized” as the six-year-old school boy insisted on. Despite being five years older, Fíli were thankfully in agreement with his parents and maternal uncles that there was no need to change the menu or anything else in the family restaurang which had been owned by the Durinsson family for generations. 

“Tell Kíli what have happened to every single chain-restaurants that have tried to set up in Erebor and Formenos. That once summer guests and tourists vanish around the school start, customers vanish from the chain-restaurants as the locals prefer what they have grown up with and that any such restaurant will end being a failure.” 

Dís laughed at the end of the line, they had witnessed a such thing happen a few years ago, and it had gone exactly as Thorin just said. 

“ _ The Shire got a good harvest this year, I heard from our suppliers. Do you want some extra root crops for a nice stew or soup in the coming weekly order that I set up for you a few years ago? _ ” 

“Some sweet potatoes would be nice as a difference from beets or normal potatoes this week, I am thinking of roasting them in the oven together with a piece of salmon so it is done all at once. And a nice sauce to it.” 

Dís promised to fix that in the order, and once their call was finished, Thorin went back to the gymnastics movements he had been doing before the cell phone rang on the table. 

He did not go to the gym, but was part of a amateur boxing club in order to keep himself fit. Besides, there could be a situation where he might end up needing to defend himself, and in a fast manner too. 

~X~X~X~X~X~X

That Friday, Acacia was in great expectation of what she would discover in the box. She even felt like a child on Christmas, that feeling of unwrapping any gifts. 

“Ooooh, the milk, butter and cream from our own dairy in Hobbiton! Beef from the local cows and pork from the pigs! A whole chicken, and a whole of twenty eggs from our own chicken flock! And vegetables from Hamfast Gamgee, how nice of him!” 

It was already watering in her mouth at the thought of all the dishes she could cook from the groceries. Belladonna have sent the recipes as per the wish of her daughter, along with some homemade cookies as a surprise. 

“Time to cook! I will do the chicken first, raw chicken does not taste good at all, and it is dangerous to eat any chicken meat that is still pink in colour after cooking…” 

Acacia could recall how a classmate of her in elementary school had not cooked a piece of chicken breast correctly in the cooking class, and ended up in the hospital because of food poisoning. A very good example of what could happen if you were sloppy with the cooking. 

“I must write a thank-you letter for both my parents and Hamfast later after dinner, for giving me all the stuff needed to make such delicious food.”

She was already looking forwards next Friday when a new delivery would be sent to her. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, given how important food is for the Hobbits in canon and they are basically a sort of Amish people in this AU, of course Acacia would not find modern food as tasteful like the one she is used to


	4. The right details

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As a descendant of farmers, Acaia can spot faults in historical fiction

Back home in the Shire, winter generally meant that while any work out in the fields was impossible to do and her life here in the modern city was very different, but that were no excuse to become lazy. So far, Acacia had finished knitting a nice shawl to her mother Belladonna and had started on some thicker gloves for her father Bungo, knowing that he would be grateful to be able to keep his hands warm while out in the cold weather. 

  
  


Yet she also took time to read new books whatever she could. Yet the current one she almost had finished reading, was not...a book she could relax with, because her mind kept noticing details that just screamed wrong. Sure, the book was historical fiction, but for someone with her upbringing, the story simply was not enjoyable. 

Acacia groaned loudly in relief as she finally reached the last page of the book, feeling that the ending was long overdue. Her Shire blood, that lineage of farmers and agricultural workers from centuries past, felt like it was boiling in her veins from the anger she felt. 

“ **Another one of those clueless authors in historical fiction who gets the whole lifestyle of farming so...** ** _horribly wrong! _ ** **How DARE they show the life on a historical farm as a simple life, where the main character can dash off for ridiculous adventures in the middle of the harvest!! And calling the everyday life ** ** _boring_ ** ** because nothing ever happens there?! How can things be boring on a farm where there is chores to finish each day!?** ”

She felt deeply offended, recalling how she had helped out the farmers in Hobbiton after school in both the stables and households in order to learn from a early age the life of her ancestors. If she focused enough, she could still feel the weight of the buckets that were filled with fresh water from the well and that would be carried into the barn for the animals to drink, the heavy work of kneading the big doughs that would give lots of bread loaves, how it felt to kneel down on the wooden floor and scrub it clean from dirt with a bucket of water and a brush, all the indoor work of doing the spring cleaning, washing the dirty laundry at the lavoir at the river near Hobbiton, how long it would take to weave enough cloth to make clothes from it… 

Ugh. Acacia could really imagine how offended the Shire would feel, once they found out about this book. After all, she knew stories of how naive city-dwellers suddenly arrived after buying a piece of land, and found out the hard how farming actually demanded a lot of knowledge not mentioned in the books that painted life on a farm as simpler than it actually was. 

“No, I need to travel back to the rural areas of northern Valinor for some peace on my mind from this!” 

Of course, she had to plan that trip a little bit, but she knew that this book would most likely be banned in the Shire for its unrealistic portrait of farming life. 

Besides, she should write a letter to Mayor of Michel Delving, telling of this book and warn about that it might cause modern-day city dwellers to once again be given a wrong idea about life in the Shire. 

~X~X~X~X~X~X

In a different part of Nargothrond: 

Unknown to Acacia, Thorin had also gotten his hands on said book from the library and found himself frustrated by the same lack of truthfulness in the written details. 

“It is  ** _bad_ ** when I finds myself hoping that the author will be sued by the Shire, lose the trial and being sentenced to really learn what it's like to work on an old time farm without modern machines.” 

True, Erebor was a former mining community once known to have found gold in its mine, but they had once depended on farmers who could supply grain and other cultivated food to them, as it was difficult to have their own farms around the mine and risk losing an important field because a new gold vein had not been found far from there deep down in the earth. 

Thorin himself had once helped out in the Shire as a schoolboy, on school trips that would teach students how things really happened on a farm. Sure, it had not always been fun, especially if it was during days with horrible weather, but it was the experience and the new knowledge that counted. 

“Besides, do that author even realize that a common farmer boy would most likely be  ** _unable to read and write,_ ** in the century which the book is meant to be set in? Before the middle of the 19th century, it was only the sons of finer families, the upper and middle classes, who received education at home or in a private school, because the parents could afford to pay teachers. School were not free until 1891, before that people had to pay for their children to go to school.”

Anyway, that book was a waste of time and horrible to read for anyone who could spot everything that was wrong about farming. Since he, of all people, had kept wondering about how the farmer and his wife would be affected by how their son leaving them in the middle of harvest time instead of enjoying the adventure that the main character happened to experience, he had a pretty clear mental image of how someone like miss Baggins would react on the book. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In this modern AU I am having the Hobbits as a sort-of Amish people, so Acacia grew up learning how to do farm work as it was done before the Industrial Revolution
> 
> A lavoir (wash-house) is a public place set aside for the washing of clothes. Communal washing places were common in Europe until industrial washing was introduced, and this process in turn was replaced by domestic washing machines. Lavoirs are commonly sited on a spring or beside or set over a river. Many lavoirs are provided with roofs for shelter.
> 
> The Mayor of Michel Delving, sometimes Mayor of the Shire, was the elected leader of Michel Delving, the de facto capital of the Shire.
> 
> In RL Victorian times, school were indeed not free until 1891, and attending school did not become mandatory until 1880


	5. The meaning of physical strength

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> sometimes modern beauty ideal is not good to use against others

It was rare for Acacia to be in Erebor, but she had gotten a full three days extra off from work alongside leave over Christmas and New Year, which she had spent in the Shire with her parents. Today was the last Saturday before she would return to Nargothrond. It had been a while since she wore her traditional Shire clothes, but Acacia was only happy to wear them again. 

“Bofur! It has been a while!” 

Despite the age difference between them, Acacia was good friends with the miner, who earned extra money during winter in the form of selling handmade toys. 

“Greetings there, lassie! Glad to see you staying at the hotel, there is some snow troubling the railway today, I am afraid.” 

During winter, it was not unheard in northern Valinor that the train traffic could have trouble with snow, especially after snow storms. The past days had been such days, and everyone was ready on how it could affect people who travelled long distances with a train. 

“Oh, madam Dís!” Acacia said at seeing a older woman, and used the term in the Shire meant to separate married women from unmarried ones. It was the only daughter in the Durinsson family, who seemed to be in a hurry towards the toy stand. 

“Bofur, we need extra staff immediately! It is a train towards Formenos that does not come anywhere because of the snow and the travelers have been stuck there for several hours already! Erebor has sent buses to pick them up, and all restaurants have been told to be ready to serve food!” 

Right. One of the big troubles that could happen in winter, and likely Erebor was the closest community. 

“I will help too!” Acacia offered, as Bofur hurried to close the toy stand so he could help the Durin family in this unplanned task. 

  
  


Thorin had also been home for the Christmas and New Year season, so he was not surprised when his sister more or less pushed him into the restaurant kitchen to help out. 

“Bofur and a Shire lass is coming to help out as extra staff today, they will get to serve the customers with me! You, Orvar and Frerin make the food!”

“Right, right…” 

He rolled up his sleeves on the shirt, put on an apron in the right size for him and cracked some eggs to make the first pancake batter. 

~X~X~X~X~X~X

As it was, it did not take long before the unexpected customers arrived. Erebor had several restaurants to choose between, but Arkenstone Pancakes was not among the top three in popularity for nothing. Lucky, Acacia had also helped out in a restaurant in Hobbiton to earn extra money for her move to Nargothrond and she knew how to act as a waitress. Arkenstone Pancakes did not have a set dresscode for those who worked there, since it was the owner family who worked there, but her plain dress and bonnet, in a plain white colour without any embroidery that did symbolize her unwed status, was still suitable for work. 

  
  


For the first hour or so, it went well. Mostly families with young children, who were mostly focused on getting their hungry children fed so they could calm down. There, Bofur proved himself able of amusing the children and cheer up the mood because of his funny personality. 

Of course, there was a few vegans who had to leave for another place to eat, since Arkenstone Pancakes simply did not have that many choices for vegan pancakes, making them the traditional way on flour, milk and eggs, and frying the batter in butter, but they were kind enough to understand, at least. 

“Are there  ** _ANYTHING_ ** on this menu that will not cause weight gain?” 

Despite that she did not work in the restaurant like a regular waitress, Acacia realized that there was trouble incoming. A new family had arrived with the second round of busses from the train, and the teenage daughter, dressed in the modern clothes for teenagers from the big chain stores selling fashion clothes, looked very unpleasant over where her mother had chosen to eat. 

“Catherine, please stop nagging about your dieting, you are already thin as it is and would rather need a few kilos to get back into a healthy shape…” the mother attempted to say, while trying to keep her younger child, a boy, to sit still until that the food was served. 

“And look like a fat hippo beside the popular girls in school? ** _ NO WAY!!_ ** ” 

Thorin rolled his eyes at the comment where he just handled Acacia a tray of finished pancakes to another family, he had never understood the media highlighting rail thin fashion models as a beauty ideal and honestly always felt alarmed whatever he heard teenage girls fussing over their body weight when they might still not yet be fully developed during puberty. In the worst case, those girls would end up with health issues throughout their lives and actually damage their bodies in a desperate attempt to reach a unnatural body ideal. 

But Dís refused to remain silent: 

“If she says another word, she  ** _will _ ** be thrown out.”

As a mother of two children, she hated when people insisted on losing weight that had been the result of mother nature blessing a woman in a successful pregnancy or when a woman put on weight that happened to be muscles from hard work, like Acacia. 

“Look at that waitress, she looks like a cow…”

Ok, that was a rude comment, as Acacia could see the mother grow more and more ashamed by sitting next to the girl. While the mother and son got their order of pancakes, the teenage daughter only got one single thing set down on the table: 

A glass of plain water.

“You would not be viewed as a good marriage match in the Shire, young lady, as you are too skinny to be able to any heavy work. I bet that you are not even able to carry a full bucket of water for long.” 

Since none of of the three Durinsson siblings protested, Acacia quickly went outside and returned with two actual metal buckets, each one filled with ten kilos of water, before she challenged the teenage girl to lift it and keeping it off the floor for ten minutes. With all the attention suddenly on her from the other customers, as well the sibling trio who was the co-owners on Arkenstone Pancakes, the teenager had no choice but to accept the challenge unless she wanted to look like a fool. 

Naturally, her arms started to trembling by the weight not soon after that she had started to hold the two buckets. And Acacia did not miss to add in a extra word or two: 

“That is exactly the weight I currently have, in muscles that I have built up during all my life, thanks to living in the Shire and working hard everyday since I was old enough to help out with easily chores in the home. So let me tell you this, young lady:  ** _Do not judge others on the basis of their weight or body shape, for had you been living in a historical period before the industrial revolution, you would be the one viewed as being way too underweight from starvation or a illness that made you unfit for pregnancy and childbirth, as well being unable to do any heavy work because there was no modern conveniences we take for granted nowadays._ ** ” 

As on a clue from what she said, the teenager failed to reach the ten minutes limit to holding the two heavy buckets. Only the quick reaction from Acacia prevented that the water was spread all over the floor. 

“Thank you for telling my foolish daughter about the importance of a healthy weight, miss. And you, Catherine, from tomorrow on you are going to return to the water polo that you have neglected ever since you started at your new school and spend time with that miserable girl gang who just has fashion and diets in their empty heads!”

The mother and her son had eaten up, and after paying for the meal, she dragged the teenage girl along out though the front door despite the girl's stuttering protests. At a loud cough from Dís made everyone pretend as if the whole scene had never happened in the first place. Though Frerin elbowed his brother and made a meaningful look towards Acacia as she returned to help Bofur with the serving. 

“Your type of woman, brother.”

Thorin scowled at his brother, a clear warning to not even try teasing about it in front of either family members or strangers. 


	6. Trap-Neuter-Return

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Feral cats can be a big problem at times

Acacia loved cats since she was a young girl, because they were useful in keeping mice and other vermin away from food storage. 

But it was nonetheless a alarming sight to see all the homeless, feral cats in the city when she moved there. Cats that could have been pets, but eventually dumped on the streets when they no longer were cute little kittens or the owners failing to realize how important it was to neuter male cats and sterilize female cats to prevent unwanted kittens and exacerbate the problems of too many cats. 

“Shoo! The flower beds are not a toilet for you!”

She and the other gardeners in Nargothrond had a lot of trouble with feral cats ruining flower beds and other plants they was paid to care for. 

“I see that it is time to start trap some of the city cats again and make sure that they can not have kittens.”

Judge Thorin Durinsson had seen miss Baggins despair over the feral cats outside the courthouse and also seen that there was a lot of unfamiliar feral cats in the area with his apartment, so he had chosen to help out with that problem. So once finishing his lunch, Thorin made a phone call to a neighbor: 

“Bifur, can you start feeding the cats in our apartment area? I think some of them have started to come over at the courthouse and we better ensure that there will not be a explosion of feral kittens once spring comes.” 

Their landlord would feel relief over no new kittens around the apartments, and it would also ease worry for the cat owners in the same area as well, since there was a few owning female cats. If one of those pets were not sprayed already and became pregnant from a “date” with stray cats, it was often a unplanned pregnancy that the owners did not want to happen. 

  
  


A week or so later:

“A planned whole week with Trapping, Neuter and Return several colonies of feral cats in this area?” Acacia asked in surprise. Her co-workers had just been talking about it, and she happened to overhear it. Not that she was unfamiliar with what it meant, she simply had been thinking of something else first. 

“Yes. It is soon March and that is when cats starts to have dates again. It is hoped to catch as many females in heat and intact males as we can, to lower the number of kittens later this spring.” 

Yes, this was something she wanted to help out with, if it was possible. 

“Judge Durinsson is leading the operation this time. He have already called several veterinary stations and animal clinics about it, so they know that there will be a number of feral cats coming.” 

Returning to her afternoon tea snack, Acacia listened on how this was best done and where she could sign up for helping. 

~X~X~X~X~X~X

The next weekend, she was among a smaller group to help catching cats around the courthouse. 

“Oh, it is that  ** _unfriendly _ ** fellow we finally got on the 171th try,” Thorin commented at seeing the huge, dark orange tomcat hissing and fighting to get out of the trap. Acacia stared in shock at what he just said.

“Pardon, did you say ** _171th try, _ ** judge Oakenshield?” she asked in disbelief. 

“Yes, this one is a smart fellow, and somehow seems to have chosen to annoy me whatever he spots me. But since he seems to have been in a fight not long ago and needs food to recover from his injuries, I guess that his instinct to eat was bigger than his cunning this time.” 

It turned out that this adult tomcat was infamous in the city, commonly called Smaug, mostly for being near impossible to catch whatever someone had tried before because he tended to wander around in the various city blocks, and based on a huge number of orange kittens born every year so far, he was the most likely father or even grandfather. In some cases, he could perhaps flat out be a great-grandfather based on how many of his annual offspring that survived to adulthood and having their own kittens. 

“He have lived his whole life out on the streets, is a well-known troublemaker since years back and very unlikely to be socialized enough for possible adoption to a human owner because of his age. And given his injuries from the newest fight before we caught him...I can't promise that he will survive the visit to the vet tomorrow.”

Acacia was not naive to beg for the feral cat life. She could hear him fight to get out from the trap, even with a blanket over to keep him calm. No, he really was not likely to end up as a pet, unlike several other cars that their group had managed to catch tonight.

~X~X~X~X~X~X

On Monday morning when she was about to leave the apartment building to witness a pair of feral adult females to where their colony was in the neighborhood, Acacia could read in the weekly community newspaper from her landlord on the noticeboard that Smaug was one of the feral cats that had ended up euthanized either because of illness or injuries. 

“That is one of the ways it could end up with when we traps feral cats. Either they are neutered and returned to their normal life outdoors, adopted or put to sleep.” 

But a more pleasant scene greeted her outside. Myrtle, the sprayed and returned feral cat who had been trapped at a young age some years before Acacia had moved here, the proof being that her left ear had its tip removed to let people know that she did not need to be sprayed again if she was trapped. Myrtle was not social enough to be a pet, but she proved herself friendly when food was offered by familiar people. 

“Myrtle. Myrtle, I have something nice for you.”

Such as the elderly lady here on the first floor, a widow who cared for the colony and always informed local cat rescues or animal shelters if there had came new cats that were not born in the colony itself by being offspring of the adult cats that had not yet visited the vet to end their ability to reproduce. 

**Author's Note:**

> Here Old Bilbo from LOTR canon is the uncle of Bungo, and thus Acacia is his great-niece


End file.
